The Quiet things that no one ever knows [poison-st

She watched as he hopped down to the branch below him, impressed how fast he was learning. Her hands lightly clapped together a few times in a faint applause.

"I think I'm getting the hang of--Shit."

"What is--" she started to ask, when the branch gave out beneath Lochlann!

Her hands flew to her mouth, stifling a gasp as he fell. While learning to climb trees , you were bound to fall off. It was just part of the learning experience. Just like learning to ride a horse, you were bound to fall off at some time. Speaking of horses, Lochlann had transformed into one and was now stuck between two branches. She never thought she'd see a horse stuck in a tree before!

"Oh! What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!" she thought to herself in a panic.

Avian looked to her seagulls for some form of reassurance, but they had all scattered from Lochlann's sudden transformation. Now they flew in a frenzy all around the tree, much like they would around a boat with a fresh catch of fish. Avian remembered she needed to keep her emotions in check, or more birds might gather from her sudden panicking. Taking a deep breath, she started climbing down the tree towards the giant black stallion.

"Hang on. I-I'm coming!" she called down, trying to keep her shaking voice in check.

When she reached a branch across from the two he was trapped between, she sat down and looked on at him in worry. He was a beautiful horse to her, but a little less majestic when he was stuck in a tree.

"Is...is there anyway you can change back?" she asked hopefully.

Avian swatted at the seagulls that got too close, trying to keep them in check. She looked back at Lochlann who looked quite nervous, his horsey eyes twitching around in panic.

"Okay, just...erm...stay calm," she said hurriedly, while trying to stay calm herself, "If you change back, maybe I could push you to the branch below you,"

Although she was worried he might not make it. She had scrawny arms with little to no upper arm strength, so he might make it...or miss it entirely.

"Ready?" she asked, readying her hands to push a horse off a tree branch, "And if you don't make it...Well, I've fallen out of trees before and the worst part is the fall. It'll be over before you know it. So, just change back and I'll push as hard as I can!"

She cringed as Lochlann flashed between human and horse as he tumbled down to the lower branches. At least he was closer to the ground, but he was still a horse. At this point, most of the seagulls had flown away in fear of the human that would turn into a horse without warning.

"Avian, I am starting to think I don't like trees very much."

"Sorry," she muttered, pulling her had over her head in shame, "I should have known horses and trees don't mix well,"

Extending a foot out to a branch beneath her, she carefully hopped down next to him. Now that she was closer, she realized how funny it was. A horse on its back trapped in tree with its hooves up in the air. Avian dropped her head to let her floppy sunhat hide the fact that she was giggling at him. But remembering how panicked her friend probably was, she forced on a straight face and looked back to him.

"I think you're just going to have to push me off."

"Push you...push you off?! Are you sure?! You can't change back now and just climb down?! What if you get seriously injured!? I...I can't be responsible for that..." she said frantically, looking around rapidly as if the answer to her problems were hanging around her somewhere.

"Well...okay," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

Putting her arms up against him, she readied herself to push.

"Let me know when," she said.

To her surprise, he landed on his hooves with ease and even stopped to graze. Putting her hand over her heart, she sighed in relief.

"No problem. Thank goodness," she said, as she got up to climb down herself, "For a second there I thought--AH!"

Her surefooted feet gave out beneath her and she fell the short way down to the ground. The girl landed right on her rump with a THUMP and a whimper.

"Owww," she whined, slowly getting up and dusting off her sun dress, "Looks like I was the one who ended up falling, huh?"

It definitely wasn't the first time she had fallen from a tree and certainly not the last. Falling was all part of the experience, just like surfing or biking. Now that she had her two feet on the ground Lochlann had his...four feet on the ground, she could rest easy. The seagulls were already starting to circle back to her now that she was calmer. However, they distinctly kept their distance from the mysterious black stallion. They could since it as a predator. However Avian just looked on at the formidable horse before her.

"Pretty horsey..." she murmured to herself then spoke up, "Oh, right! Can you change back now or not?"

Lochlann the horse turned back into Lochlann the handsome guy. She would miss seeing his horse form. Surprisingly, he started to laugh, catching Avian off guard. She had never heard him laugh before, and hearing him do so now was a pleasant surprise. She giggled along with him, but she was only giggling from how happy she was to hear him laugh. He had a nice laugh, and she wondered why he didn't show it more. Like his horse form, it was soothing to her, yet she couldn't understand why he never revealed it often.

"I'm glad we did this"

"Mmhm," she nodded her head, watching him lay back in the green grass.

Avian was tempted to lay down next to him, but fought the urge. So instead, she stayed sitting, looking down at him.

"You're a good friend, Avian."

"Huh!?" she gasped loudly.

She hadn't even meant to be that loud! Avian had just never had anyone call her that word before: a "friend". Thinking back, she was pretty sure Lochlann vocally acknowledged her as a friend. She also realized that although she looked to him as a friend, she never told him straight out either.

"Thanks," she smiled meekly, "And you're a good fr-friend too,"

Avian stumbled a bit with the new word, never having used it so genuinely before